Share
This Family Day weekend, community members and labour activists brought a vibrant rally to the heart of Toronto’s retail sector to call on Premier Kathleen Wynne to raise the minimum wage to $14 and ensure decent work for Ontario families.
Background:
The minimum wage increase announced by Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne on January 30 is too small and locks in the poverty-level wages of the province’s lowest-paid workers, Unifor says.
“A minimum wage of $11 an hour is still a poverty-level income. Tying it to inflation only ensures it stays below the poverty line,” said Unifor National President Jerry Dias.
Wynne announced that her government will introduce legislation to increase the minimum wage to $11 an hour (from $10.25) effective June 1, and to tie future increases to inflation, as an expert panel recommended. The new rate would be announced April 1 of each year and take effect Oct. 1.
Unifor, along with other labour and anti-poverty groups, has supported a $14 minimum wage.
